


She's Not Straight, Pacifica

by thishazeleyeddemon



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Autistic Mabel Pines, Canon Jewish Character, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, Jewish Holidays, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, it's a little subdued but that is my Intent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-18
Updated: 2017-02-18
Packaged: 2018-09-25 07:41:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9809750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thishazeleyeddemon/pseuds/thishazeleyeddemon
Summary: It's Hanukkah, and it's time for the Pines and co. to celebrate!Dipper doesn't let the celebrations distract him entirely, however. Something's up with Pacifica. But what? And why does she keep staring at Mabel?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to my best friend Asuka~
> 
> Important: I did a lot of research, but I'm only Technically Jewish, so if anything is Off just tell me!
> 
> Also, Happy Christmas/Hanukkah and Happy Valentine's Day! I started writing this during winter break lmao

 

“On the first day of Hanukkah, my sister gave to me, a pig to cuddle and squeeze!”

 

Dipper laughed as Mabel shoved Waddles, now significantly larger than he was when they first got him, in his face. The pig oinked and licked a warm, wet stripe up Dipper’s face. 

 

“Mabel, isn’t he kind of big to be in the house now?” he asked, when she pulled the pig away to better wrap it in a big hug. 

 

“What? No way,” Mabel said, in blatant disregard of the fact that Waddles was often not kept in the actual house anymore and that he tended to knock things over when he was inside. “He’s a growing boy, that’s all! And he needs to be inside so he can celebrate Hanukkah with us!”

 

“Wouldn’t want to deprive a pig of Hanukkah celebrations, I guess,” Dipper drawled. 

 

The twins were spending Hanukkah 2016 up in Gravity Falls. This was not unusual - they’d spent the past three up here as well. The only odd thing was that this year, Stan and Ford would be joining them in person, instead of just with video chat and, in one memorable year, astral projection. 

 

“We’re gonna do so much this Hanukkah, Dipper!” Mabel said excitedly, her hands starting to flap. “We’re gonna make gelt and sufganiyot and spin the dreidel and -”

 

“Get pig slobber all over your nice menorah sweater?”

 

“Wh -” Mabel looked down, to where Waddles was chewing on her blue-and-white sweater. 

 

“WADDLES!” 

 

~****~

 

The twins made their way down to the kitchen, where they found Soos and Wendy sitting at the kitchen table. Wendy was absentmindedly spinning a dreidel, while Soos was in the middle of animatedly discussing an anime called Yuko On Fire, which seemed to be about lesbians who did fire-dancing. He broke off when the twins came in.

 

“‘Sup, dawg,” he said. 

 

“‘Sup, dawg to you too, Soos.” Mabel fist-bumped with him. “Where’s Melody?”

 

“Oh, she’s back up in Portland for Christmas,” Soos said. He sounded a little distressed to Dipper and Wendy, but Mabel didn’t pick up on it. She hugged him, a response practically as automatic as breathing at this point, and Soos relaxed ever-so-slightly.

 

“Wendy!” Dipper exclaimed. “I thought you said you were spending the holidays at college?”

 

“Meh, I was going to? But some of the stuff I wanted to do got shut down so I figured, hey, why not come home? And of course, I couldn’t miss my favorite gremlins, huh?” She ruffled Dipper’s hair. He laughed, and ruffled hers back.

 

“Sheesh, get a room,” Mabel snickered. 

 

“Yeah, no lovey-dovey sh - stuff in my kitchen!” came a voice. The twins spun around as one.

 

“STAN!” 

 

Tackle hugs were a lot easier to weather when the tackler was twelve. Mabel was seventeen, and Stan stumbled under her weight. He could feel the strength in her arms. He did his best to hug her back, extending an arm as well for Dipper. Dipper rarely tackle-hugged anymore, but he was almost as strong as Mabel. Stan could see the muscle under his skin. 

 

“Ooof - heh, back up a bit, ya gremlins, I’m happy to see you too -” 

 

Unlike Dipper and Mabel, Soos never tackle-hugged people. He bear-hugged instead. This can be an important distinction, and the distinction is several pounds of forceful affection applied to the ribcage by an excitable Latino man who considers you a father figure.

 

“Oww, OWW! Soos, put me down!” 

 

Soos did so quickly. “Sorry, Mr. Pines,” he said sheepishly. “I’m just so happy to see you!” 

 

“Yo,” Wendy offered as a greeting.

 

“Nice to see you’re the same as ever, Wendy,” Stan remarked. “How’s college treating ya? Burn any buildings down yet?” 

 

“Almost,” Wendy said wistfully. “That was a fun day.”

 

Stan cackled. He opened his mouth to speak, but Mabel interrupted him. “Where’s Grunkle Ford?” she asked.

 

“Yeah, where is he?” Dipper added, looking around as if he expected Ford to pop up from under the table and yell, ‘surprise!’ “I have to tell him about this weird lizard thing I found in the boys’ bathroom -”

 

“A lizard? That’s gross. At least at Gravity Falls High, we only get malevolent supernatural forces.”

 

“And that’s any better?” Dipper said, turning with a smile. “Hey, Pacifica.”

 

Mabel, as usual, had a much less subdued reaction - another tackle-hug, paired with an ecstatic shout of, “PAZ!” 

 

Pacifica had definitely improved from her twelve-year old days. Her hair was dyed ombré, fading from her natural brown to light blond at the roots. She looked, instead of the valley-girl stereotype of years past, more elegant and refined. She’d grown into herself.

 

She laughed, arms coming up to wrap Mabel in a hug. “Hey, dork. How was life back in Normalsville, Cali?” 

 

“Ugh, the WORST,” Mabel groaned. “All of my teachers are so LOUD, and I like loud usually but not this type of loud, you know? And there’s this girl in my class who’d be cute but she makes this awful chewing noise and it’s - it’s the bad, Paz.” Mabel smiled, suddenly looking almost shy. “It’s good to see you again, though.”

 

Pacifica smiled back.

 

There was an uncomfortable pause, broken by the front door slamming open. Ford careened inside - there was no other word for the haphazard crash through the door. He slammed the door quickly, looking dazed.

 

“Did anyone else know eyebats get aggressive during the winter?” he said.

 

Stan stared at him in disbelief, from where he had started the process of removing his extra layers. “Ford, it’s twenty feet from the car to the door,” he said. “How did you manage to get in trouble that fast?” He shrugged off his woolen coat, made by the one and only Mabel Pines. “Must be a, a world record or somethin’.”

 

“Oh no,” Mabel laughed. “Let me tell you about what Dipper and Wendy did this summer at the haunted convenience store. They-”

 

She launched into a story about Dipper, Wendy, several bags of marshmallows, and a stuffed giraffe toy. Pacifica shifted uncomfortably. Soos noticed her wander off towards the fridge. 

 

He walked up to her. 

 

“Hey, you okay?” he asked. “You looked real sad all of a sudden.”

 

She shook her head. “I’m not sad. I just thought about - ugh, it’s nothing.”

 

“You sure? I got these big ears for listening if you need to talk, dawg.” He tugged on his in-reality-quite-small ears.

 

Pacifica laughed. Her laugh wasn’t musical - only characters in stories ever had musical laughs - but it was pretty and pleasant to hear. Soos loved making people laugh - happiness was a precious thing. 

 

“No, thank you,” she said. “I’m just a little tired.”

 

“Okay! Well, how about some hot chocolate?” Soos said, reaching for the cabinets. 

 

“Did someone say hot chocolate!” Mabel appeared behind Pacifica, who just barely controlled her instinct to jump. 

 

“Have you ever had hot chocolate with peppermint, Paz?” Mabel asked.

 

“Oh, yes! At home I would have hot chocolate with whipped cream and peppermint and - nevermind.” Pacifica flushed. 

 

“Rich people hot chocolate, eh?” Wendy said, but she was smiling when she said it.

 

~****~

 

Dreidel spinning was a traditional game for Hanukkah. The various non - Jews in attendance were predictably unfamiliar with the rules, but being quite sharp, they caught on quick.

 

“How do you keep getting gimel?” Mabel was staring at her game pieces, frustration etched into the lines of her face. 

 

Pacifica smirked. “Just lucky, I guess.”

 

“Did you find my weighted dreidels? ‘Cuz I coulda sworn I got rid of them a few years ago,” Stan said. He was sprawled out in the armchair, Ford perched on the armrest like a mildly malevolent owl, socked feet in Stan’s lap. Pacifica, Wendy, the twins, and Soos were busy playing dreidel. The TV was blaring Gravity Falls’ equivalent to Christmas movies, cinematic masterpieces such as The Werewolf Who Stole The Christmas Stockings  and Skeleton in Christmas Town.

 

Pacifica was winning the game by far, with Soos in second place and Mabel just behind him.

 

“Like you’ve ever thrown away anything that could be used for a scam, Grunkle Stan,” Dipper teased gently. 

 

“Eh, true enough,” Stan shrugged. 

 

Soos picked up the dreidel. “Doesn’t feel weighted to me. Guess Paz is just lucky.”

 

“How do you know?” Ford asked. 

 

It was Wendy’s turn for an evil grin. “Trust me, you work for Stan for any length of time, you pick things up.” 

 

“Damn right,” Stan said. Wendy held her fist out to him, and they fistbumped before Stan settled back down into the chair. 

 

“You know, Paz, Soos is right,” Mabel said. “You are pretty great.”

 

Pacifica froze. Dipper heard a slight shake in her voice as she said, not quite sounding natural, “I know, I’m awesome.”

 

He tilted his head.

 

~****~

 

“You know, Mabel, I don’t think latkes are supposed to have glitter in them,” Dipper said, staring at the latkes in front of him. 

 

“Certainly an unusual recipe,” Ford commented. “Do you remember the latkes Mom would make?”

 

Asking Stan if he remembered something was always a loaded and risky business, but luckily, he nodded without hesitation. “Heh, yeah. She’d call them covert latkes because Dad didn’t want her doin’ anything too un-Christian.” 

 

They were seated at the table in the kitchen. Well - technically. The table couldn’t fit everyone, so Wendy was sitting on the table, and Mabel was sitting on Pacifica, who was an interesting shade of red. 

 

Dipper eyed her suspiciously. She was staring off to one side, long ombre hair falling in front of her eyes. She missed the looks that Mabel kept sending her occasionally. Mabel looked almost wistful. 

 

Ford glanced outside, to the snow-covered Gravity Falls forest. 

 

“Everyone, it looks like the sun will set soon,” he said. “Shall we light the menorah?”

 

Stan, Mabel, and Dipper cheered. Pacifica, Wendy, and Soos looked suddenly uncomfortable. 

 

“Uh, you don’t want us to go, do you?” Wendy asked. 

 

All the Pines made varying noises of dissent. 

 

“Hanukkah is about family!” Mabel said. “Not just old, religious-y stuff.” 

 

“Yeah, I’m sure we have room for a few Catholics and an Atheist,” Stan chimed in. “Now, who wants to help search Ford’s basement for the menorah?”

 

“Menorah! Menorah! Menorah!” The gang ran off to go brave the depths of Ford’s basement. ‘Brave’ was the right verb, too; although work had been done to begin to clear it up, Stan had not wanted to move most of it out of sentimentality, and had avoided most of the rooms. There were many things down there that had not seen the light of day in over thirty years.

 

Pacifica hung back. Dipper, about to follow his friends and family, noticed.

 

“Pacifica, are you alright?” Dipper asked.

 

The girl startled. “Hmm? Oh, yes - I’m fine.”

 

“Yeah?” 

 

Pacifica looked around nervously, as if she thought an eavesdropper would miraculously emerge from the wallpaper to steal her secrets. She then shook herself, and glared at him awkwardly.

 

“What do you want, anyway, Dipstick?” she snapped. She fell back into her old behavior when she was embarrassed or uncomfortable, and that was Dipper’s biggest clue that something was Different. 

 

He decided to try and confirm his suspicions.

 

“I saw how you were looking at Mabel.” 

 

The result was electrifying. Pacifica jerked as if shocked, whirling around wide-eyed. 

 

Bullseye. He was getting better at this reading people stuff.

 

“How did you -” she started, hands bunched into fists. She looked like she wanted to fight, but her eyes showed her rising panic. “What did you say to -”

 

Dipper held his hands up pacifingly. “It’s okay, Paz. I haven’t said anything.”

 

Pacifica relaxed.

 

“But you should.”

 

“What?”

 

~****~

 

“Oh, hey, there you are!” Mabel turned around. She was holding a be-tentacled entity that for unknown reasons was a vivid shade of fluorescent pink. 

 

“Can you help me carry this out into the forest?” she said, raising the creature up. “It tried to eat Grunkle Stan’s hands.”

 

“You know, Mabel, I should probably go make sure that Soos hasn’t like, eaten some scientific experiments, or...something.” Dipper backed up a bit. “Why don’t you go up there with Pacifica?” 

 

“Yeah!” Pacifica said, far too loudly. “Let’s go out and deal with your tentacle thing!”

 

Mabel looked at Pacifica, and then at Dipper. She beamed. “Of course!”

 

“Great!” Dipper ran off back down the hallway, only pausing to exaggeratedly wink at Pacifica, who flushed a deep shade of tomato red. Mabel looked inquisitive. 

 

“What was that about?” she asked. Pacifica ducked her head.

 

“Nothing,” she muttered. 

 

Mabel laughed. “What,” she said. “Are you actually not gonna tell me?”

 

Pacifica was spared from having to answer by a shrill, ear-splitting whine from the pink tentacle thing. It writhed in Mabel’s arms, almost escaping. 

 

“Help?!” Mabel’s voice was suddenly etched with panic. Pacifica darted forward, wrapping her arms around the shrieking, eldritch monster. 

 

“Keep away from its mouth!” Mabel shouted. Pacifica was about to ask, “What mouth?”, when a seam split open along its wriggling body, revealing rows of little, sharklike teeth. Pacifica said something very unladylike. 

 

 “This - wasn’t what I imagined Hanukkah being like!” she gasped, as the two stumbled towards the front door, the monster screaming the entire way. 

 

“Hey, it’s us,” Mabel hissed. “Weird monsters are practically a family tradition!”

 

Mabel opened the front door with a well-placed kick. Together, Mabel and Pacifica heaved the squirming monster out into the snow-covered forest. It, still screaming, scampered away.

 

“Goodbye forever!” Mabel yelled after the weird thing. 

 

She turned to walk back into the Shack, but Pacifica caught her arm. 

 

“I -” she started, and fell silent.

 

“Pacifica?” Mabel asked. “Are you okay?”

 

“I - yes, everything’s fine, why wouldn’t everything be fine?” Pacifica breathed out slowly. She was a Northwest, a proud family. She should be able to tell Mabel that she -

 

She - 

 

“Paz?” 

 

“I -” she tried again. 

 

She let go of Mabel’s arm. 

 

“It’s nothing,” Pacifica mumbled. “Don’t worry about it.”

 

“Oh.” Was it Pacifica’s imagination, or did Mabel’s face fall a little?

 

“Well,” the other girl said, “We should go back inside, it’s fucking freezing out here, and as much as I like how sparkly snow can be here, one can’t properly appreciate  impossibly glittery snow with no toes or...whatevs, and…”

 

“Mmm,” Pacifica said noncommittally.

 

“I don’t know, Mabel,” she replied. 

 

“Sure, I’d love to go out to the movies with you - wait, what?”

 

This moment, Pacifica instinctually felt, should have been accompanied by a record scratch noise. The birds should have stopped singing, if any had been since it was snowing, and for one perfect, still moment, the sky should have cleared. The world should have, at least for that second, paused in its turning.

 

There should not have been Dipper slamming the door open while coughing, saying, “Okay, so I think we managed to find the menorah? It’s kinda big, so we might have some trouble lighting it, but -”

 

Dipper took in the scene before him.

 

“Oh,” he said. “I’ll just...go away, shall I?”

 

“Yeah, sure,” Mabel said distantly. She was still focused on Pacifica.

 

The door closed behind Dipper not with a sigh but with an unpleasant shriek, like chalk across a blackboard. Pacifica winced.

 

“We really ought to get a new door,” Mabel said. “Stan keeps saying he’s not made of money, though.”

 

“I could pay for it” warred with “What about a movie date” for release from Pacifica’s mouth. The latter won.

 

“W - what was that about a movie date?” she asked. She dug her nails into her palm. Northwests,  she thought, are never nervous.

 

It was Mabel’s turn to flush, a deep red that spread out against her soft, pale skin. She rallied.

 

“Well, I mean - you don’t have to -  hah hah, it’s just that, well, I really like you -”

 

Pacifica reached out and took her hand. She fell silent.

 

The snow fell around like cold glitter.  The cold turned Mabel’s nose red, and Pacifica felt like light was filling her up from the inside, like she was coasting on a wave. There was the distant cursing of the Stans trying to maneuver the over-sized menorah into its designated area, but Pacifica hardly heard it.

 

“I -” 

 

Pacifica’s words stuck in her throat. She swallowed, and tried again. 

 

“I like you too, Mabel.”

 

Mabel’s eyes widened. Pacifica felt like Mabel was searching her face for any sign of lying or joking, and the look on her face when she realized Pacifica was sincere -

 

\- Pacifica was suddenly filled with the knowledge that she would do anything to keep that look on Mabel’s face. Anything at all.

 

Pacifica opened her mouth to speak. Mabel apparently took this as an opportunity, because suddenly her mouth was covering Pacifica’s.

 

Pacifica had read a lot of romance novels. Kissing was always described with Three Flavors. The first two were generally fruits like peaches or mango, and the third was always Something Uniquely Theirs. 

 

Mabel, on the other hand, tasted like gelt and toothpaste, and that was it, and Mabel accidentally bit her at least once, and she accidentally clacked her teeth against Mabel’s, and that couldn’t matter less. 

 

They broke apart, breathing hard, not just from lack of air.

 

“You’re a good kisser, Pacifica Northwest,” Mabel said.

 

“You’re a rotten liar, Mabel Pines,” Pacifica replied, and Mabel laughed.

 

They reached out and interlocked fingers.

 

Whatever moment they had been going to have was interrupted this time by Ford Pines, who saw them standing there and coughed awkwardly to get their attention. They both jumped. 

 

“Time to light the menorah,” he said. “Come on in, girls.”

From behind him, Dipper poked his head out the door. He saw them holding hands, and grinned, slipping them both a thumbs-up before darting back in out of the cold. 

 

They looked at each other. 

 

“Shall we?” Mabel said, gesturing to the door.

 

Pacifica giggled. 

 

“We shall.”

 

~****~

 

There is such a thing as a perfect moment.

 

Fin.   


 


End file.
